Can you really earn money online? Enough to make a good living and actually change your life? For sure, you have read and heard of so many stories that tell you it can be done, stories of people who have made it. So what is the secret to making a fortune in the Internet?
If you do a quick search online, you will see plenty of tips and tricks on how to earn money online. But if you study all of them carefully, they are all basically doing the same thing in different ways: selling.
What Should You Sell?
1. Your Own Product
Develop your own product and then sell it. This could be a physical or digital product like e-books that you made yourself, commissioned someone else to do or acquired from another party.
2. Another Person or Company’s Product
The business of selling someone else’s product for a per cent of the earnings is called affiliate marketing.
3. Advertisement Spots On Your Website/Blog
If you manage to build a high traffic website, you can charge a company directly to place their ads on your site. You can also run Google Adsense or similar online advertising program.
4. Your Skills And Expertise
Depending on your skills, you can sell a variety of services online including writing, design, photography, bookkeeping, administrative assistance and etc. If you have considerable knowledge and expertise on a particular area, you can also offer consulting services to give advice to individuals, organizations and companies.
The Secret to Selling 
Selling per se is of course not the reason behind the amazing wealth of successful online entrepreneurs. Anyone who has a business is selling something be it a product or service or both. Obviously, some just do a better job at selling than others. So secret is selling the right way, including how to market your product so it eventually leads to a sale and more sales.
What is the right way to sell and market your product online? The specific details would depend on what you’re selling but the basic and sure way to make money online involves the following steps:
1. Establish Your Online Presence
As an aspiring online entrepreneur, you can’t start your business without first setting up your online presence. Typically, you need to have your own business website where customers can learn more about your product. You can turn a static commercial website into an online store where you can process orders.
Many online entrepreneurs, however, earn solely from maintaining their blogs. Some small businesses use only social media outlets like their Facebook page to promote their products and conduct business.
However you choose to establish your online presence, make sure to keep high quality standards. Create a professional looking website/blog/social media profile and put quality content such as compelling copy or informative and well-written blog posts.
2. Offer Something Valuable
Whether online or offline, you have to sell something that has value, something that people will pay to have or experience. It doesn’t have to be important to the entire population. What is valuable to one person may not be so to another. You just have to determine if there is good enough demand for your offering so you can make money.
If you’re still at the stage where you’re looking for the right product, realize that the right product is right for the right person. If that product answers a need or provides a needed solution, then your product has value and you can make money from it.
3. Build Traffic
One of the major benefits of an online business is the potential to reach more people. In order to “reach” your target market, however, you need to attract them to your website. And for this, you will need Internet marketing skills to reinforce your online presence and make money.
For 2014, some of the top strategies to boost your online marketing include content marketing, social media marketing, image-oriented marketing, more streamlined content and mobile-friendliness.
A great place to start learning how to navigate marketing your business online is an online affiliate community like Wealthy Affiliate, which offers Internet Marketing training and entrepreneurship certification through virtual classes, video tutorials, live chat, forum discussions and personal coaching.
4. Sell and Sell More
Once you’ve hooked your audience, the next and most important step is to turn them into paying customers. Everything from your website design to your content and even your image buttons can be used to make your site conversion friendly. Again, this is where joining an Internet Marketing training program will be very helpful.
When you have a base of satisfied customers, the great thing is not only are they likely to buy from you again or use your service, they will be more than willing to share your business through their social media networks. who will refer you to more and more people.
Repeat business and becoming viral online is what will differentiate you from a business that’s struggling to stay afloat to a business that thrives.
